


Until Next Time: A Leopika and Killugon Collection

by BlueLightningAndNexus



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Angst, Fluff and Angst, Freeform, Killua Zoldyck is Bad At Feelings, Kurapika is an Angst Machine, Leorio is so hopelessly in love, M/M, Mentions of Pitou, Multi, Poor Killua (Hunter X Hunter), Two couples in love, mentions of the zoldyck family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-23
Updated: 2020-05-23
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:55:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24332404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueLightningAndNexus/pseuds/BlueLightningAndNexus
Summary: A small drabble story, examining how each of the four main characters in Hunter x Hunter think of their respective romantic partner, and a small window of analysis into how these mutual crushes came to be.
Relationships: Gon Freecs/Killua Zoldyck, Kurapika/Leorio Paladiknight
Comments: 2
Kudos: 99





	Until Next Time: A Leopika and Killugon Collection

To Leorio, Kurapika was a dream come true. 

When the two first met, it was not on good terms. They almost came to blows over an ideological disagreement within mere minutes of knowing one-another, and only stopped because Gon nearly jumped off the ship. 

But that was the moment that their friendship was sealed, at least as far as Leorio was concerned. Leorio had a big heart, and he wasn’t ashamed to admit he was attracted to people with this same quality; the second Kurapika abandoned their match to save Gon, Leorio had all but forgiven him. 

Their interactions from that point onward would cement this for Leorio, and Leorio found that the boy was a perfect companion. Kurapika was polite and kind, especially around their friends Gon and Killua. Kurapika was smart, endlessly clever and always coming up with flawless strategies or making witty remarks. Kurapika was determined, and could do anything he set his mind to. 

Leorio couldn’t exactly say when he first fell for Kurapika, but if he had to take a guess, it would have been around the time they met up in Yorknew. For a while, the world just seemed happier whenever that blond teenager would show up; the birds would sing louder, the colors outside would seem brighter, and Leorio had a constant smile. When they had a picnic with Gon and Killua in Central Park, Leorio could hardly take his eyes off him. He was sure Kurapika noticed; hell, even Gon did, and he isn’t exactly the most observant kid. 

What Leorio did know for sure, was that he first realized the depth of this love when taking care of Kurapika. After Gon and Killua went to Greed Island, Kurapika was in Leorio’s care for several days, recovering from a massive fever. Leorio wanted to make some kind of joke about how this was great practice for being a doctor, but he didn’t have it in him; his fear for his friend’s health was all-consuming and devastating. 

It was the day after Kurapika’s fever broke. The blond chain-user still felt a bit hot, but Leorio was making sure to take good care of him and give him plenty of medicine. He still wasn’t eating anything, but this wasn’t exactly surprising. 

It was around 6 am. Leorio fell asleep on an armchair, taking care of Kurapika late into the night. He didn’t get much sleep; what little he did get was restless, plagued with dreams of his friend dying of sickness. Orange beams of sunlight spilled in through the blinds and woke Leorio up in a cold sweat. 

He looked over to find Kurapika, sitting up on the couch, wide-awake. He was still looking pale, with deep purple bags under his eyes, his hair dirty and unwashed; Leorio still found him beautiful as ever. Kurapika flashed the med student a thin smile. “Good morning sleepyhead,” he said, a teasing edge to his tone. 

Leorio wanted to tear up at the sight of the mostly recovered Kurapika. “How are you doing?” he asked, practically leaping off the chair and rushing to Kurapika’s aid. 

Kurapika chuckled, which was interrupted by a weak cough. “Still not feeling great, but I’m better.”

Leorio put a hand to Kurapika’s cheek, a heat-of-the-moment gesture he wouldn’t really think about till later. “I’m glad,” he said, and in that moment, his smile was pure sunshine to the Kurta survivor. 

Kurapika found himself thankful to have such a great friend. He put his own hand on Leorio’s own. 

“I’m glad I met you, Leorio,” he said in a tender voice. “Thank you for taking care of me.”

“I’m glad I met you, too, Kurapika Kurta,” he replied. ‘And I love you,’ he was tempted to add at the end. Instead, he went with the more cliche but effective response “What are friends for?” 

Maybe Leorio was just imagining things, but at the mention of friends, he thought he saw Kurapika avert his gaze slightly, as if saddened, if only for a moment. 

Kurapika adjusted his seating and patted the spot next to him. Leorio sat next to Kurapika, wrapping his arm around the shorter boy’s shoulder. The two sat like that for a while, watching the sunset. 

____________

To Kurapika, Leorio was an unattainable goal. Like the horizon, he was always close--always in sight--but always just out of reach. 

Truth be told, Kurpika couldn’t explain why he was attracted to Leorio. He was brash, loudmouthed, volatile, and always talking about money. He was a bit stupid, and didn’t exactly have a firm sense of self-control. Kurapika rolled his eyes during so many moments of the Hunters Exam, from their first argument on the boat; to Leorio endangering their team to see a criminal’s tits. 

But something about him was also magnetic. He had a big heart. Not in a soft-spoken, subtle way, like Kurapika himself or even Killua, but in a loud, bombastic and fervent way that compelled him to do stupid things, like punch Ging Freecs--one of the most powerful Hunters of all time--in the face in front of dozens of people. 

Kurapika didn’t talk much when it was just the two of them. He made quips and small comments on Leorio’s stories, and occasionally had short bursts of chatter about his work, but for the most part, but these tended to be few and far between; he was perfectly content to just let Leorio do most of the talking.

There was only so much that Leorio could’ve said before the topic turned to his past, his childhood, his goals, and why he wanted to become a Hunter. When Kurapika found out about Pietro, and how he perished from a completely preventable disease, it felt like the final puzzle piece of Leorio Paladinight clicking into place. Because of course this passionate and ardent character wasn’t just some selfish narcissist, and of course he did everything he did for his friends. 

In this regard, Leorio felt...perfect to Kurapkia. Someone with a big heart who would take care of him, should the time ever arise. 

But after that moment of weakness following Yorknew, when Leorio took care of Kurapika (which the chain-user enjoyed every second of yet vowed to never experience again), he knew that such a time would never come to be. 

In truth, Kurapika knew that Leorio was just a phone call away, and that’s why he was dangerous. He was an obstacle, a risk. 

Kurapika didn’t have time in his life for feelings, for romantic relationships, for a boyfriend. He had a chance--a perfect, one-in-a-million chance--at Yorknew to destroy the Spiders, but at the final stage before the finish line it all fell apart. He only succeeded in killing two before he fell ill. 

It was as Kurapika had said all those months ago back on the boat, when they first met: his only fear in life was that his rage would die down. Kurapika didn’t know much about love, but surely it would temper his rage, and that wasn’t something he could allow. Kurapika needed his rage, now more than ever, to fuel his quest, to find the Spiders. 

That was why Kurapika pushed Leorio away. He couldn’t give him his email address, because what if Leorio wanted to talk. He couldn’t tell him where he was staying, because what if he wanted to visit. He couldn’t keep any pictures of him, Gon or Killua, because what if it made Kurapika nostalgic. 

Leorio really was a horizon, a beautiful sunset, like the one they experienced that early morning in Yorknew: always close, always out of reach. But only because Kurapika pushed Leorio just out of reach, yet still close enough to see. 

____________

To Killua, Gon was everything. 

His first friend. His first love. The first person to treat him as a human being and not just a weapon. 

When they first met at the Hunters Exam, Killua didn’t quite know what to make of him. Gon seemed...like an idiot, to be frank. Maybe he had some natural talent, and he was close to Killua’s age, but there was surely no reason for them to have any sort of association, right?

But as the exam went on, Killua discovered more similarities. Gon wasn’t just fast, but clever, and determined; he wasn’t just strong, but a quick thinker and a loyal companion; he wasn’t just somewhat talented, but incredibly skilled. Above all, he was a good friend. 

Killua feared he was viewing the entire relationship from rose-tinted glasses. This was the first time he’d been outside of the Zoldyck Family grounds in years, and the first real friend he’d made. Surely, Gon didn’t view the friendship as seriously as Killua did?

But Killua was proved wrong two days later. After being chained up, whipped and tortured by Milluki, he couldn’t help but contain his excitement at hearing the news. Not only did Gon come to the manion, but so did Leorio and Kurapika, for the sole purpose of saving him!

Killua rejoined the group. Kurapika and Leorio had to go their separate ways, the former to become a bodyguard and the latter to fulfill his dream of being a doctor. But Gon was there: consistent, loyal, sturdy. 

The days turned to weeks, and weeks turned to months. Pretty soon, Killua couldn’t imagine spending a second of his life without Gon by his side. He didn’t want to. He didn’t have to. 

The white-haired assassin didn’t exactly have a lot of friends before he met Gon, so it was a bit difficult to discern where the “platonic” affection of their relationship met the border of “romantic” affection, but it didn’t matter. Killua became certain of what he was feeling by Greed Island. 

After Gon stupidly, idiotically threw away a perfectly good strategy (and his arms!) to fight Genthru, Killua felt panicked. Of course, he chewed Gon out for being so reckless, but both boys knew why, even if Killua couldn’t admit it to save his life: he was worried out of his mind for Gon’s well-being. 

In that moment, right after the fight, when Killua first saw Gon (scratched up, burnt, bleeding and missing a hand), he came to three simple conclusions:

Conclusion 1: He couldn’t lose Gon, no matter what. 

Conclusion 2: He had to live with Gon. 

Conclusion 3: For Killua to even experience the first two emotions, he had to have been in love. 

At first, Killua thought he was overreacting. Surely, there was some other explanation, right? It’s possible for friends to just be incredibly close, right? 

And, for a couple of days, Killua was content with this answer. But then, they met Kite and started traveling with his group, and it became harder to deny the fact that everytime he looked at Gon his heart would skip a beat, and everytime he saw the boy’s calloused and scratched hands he wanted nothing more than to hold them. 

Unlike Gon, Killua actually had a strong presence from both of his parents in his life. Also unlike Gon, this gave Killua a much stronger grasp on the romantic feelings he was currently experiencing. He remembered watching Kikyo and Silva kiss one-another goodbye before missions, hugging, sleeping in the same bed even. 

Killua wanted all of those things with Gon, and more. When Kite was killed, Killua wanted to hold Gon in his arms, tell him that it was going to be okay and that he loved him, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to doing it. What if Gon didn’t reciprocate? What if he rejected Killua? What if Killua lost his only friend?

When Killua found Gon--now rapidly aged up and destroying Neferpitou’s corpse--he experienced the same panic he did on Greed Island. Unlike Greed Island, there was no Angel’s Breath to make everything better, no Biscuit around to comfort him and cheer him up. 

The one time Killua allowed himself to cradle Gon in his arms was when his adult form wore off, reducing Gon to a pile of skin and bones. 

Watching his best friend cling to life back home in a filthy hospital bed, Killua realized that Gon was his everything. And now, he had nothing.   
____________

To Gon, Killua was his second half. 

He wasn’t just a friend. That word didn’t quite describe the full extent of their relationship. He was a partner, an equal that bounced perfectly off the young Hunter and pushed him to be better. 

Killua had grown on Gon almost instantly. It took a bit longer for the other boy to warm up in return, but by the time Gon rescued Killua from his family, they were inseparable. 

By the time Gon started to realize he loved Killua, it was too late. 

His confrontation with Pitou took a horrible, gruesome turn. In a split-second decision, Gon used all of his Nen and potential throughout his life--every skill he’d ever develop, every technique he’d ever craft--as fuel, sacrificing it all for immense, overwhelming strength. 

The process left him comatose for several days afterwards. From what Killua described, he was basically a skeleton, not yet dead but not enough to qualify as alive by any metric of the word. 

He was only alive because of Alluka. 

He only met the girl briefly, but he immediately took a liking to her. She was Killua’s younger sister, apparently one of a couple siblings he never encountered when storming the mansion all those months ago. From a very condensed, abridged version of events that Killua told Gon, she had some kind of Nen-based wish-granting ability that let her heal Gon back to full health. In the process of trying to find her, Killua had to flee from his brother and even Hisoka. 

All of this demonstrated the extent to which Killua was willing to keep Gon alive, and it drove the black-haired boy to tears. 

He couldn’t imagine where he would be without Killua. He didn’t want to imagine a life without him. But unfortunately, it was happening. The two best friends--the two companions--were separating. 

Now, Gon was on his way home to Whale Island, and Killua was off to travel the world with Alluka (and Nanika). Gon was excited to see his great grandmother and Aunt Mito once more, but he knew he would miss Killua with every fiber of his being. 

As the ship sailed away from the harbor, Gon thought back to all of the adventures the two had taken in the last year. He was without his other half, and he hated it. 

“I’m so sorry, Killua,” he found himself thinking aloud, wishing Killua was able to hear his words. “I never got a chance to tell you but…

“...I love you, too.”

**Author's Note:**

> I love both of these couples. Writing this made me sad, for many different reasons. 
> 
> Leorio's love for Kurapika is honestly really sweet and wholesome, and I considered continuing that with Kurapika's, but I figured it made more sense for Kurapika's section to be about how he wants a relationship but his desire for revenge outweighs it. Killua and Gon each loved one other, but Gon's fight with Pitou and the resulting trip with Alluka sent them on two different paths that makes a relationship impossible. I also kinda implied with that last line that Gon knew Killua loved him all along.


End file.
